Buddha uses 'gone' four times. These are the four things that he uses 'gone' for: the geosphere, the biosphere, the noosphere, the christosphere. 'Gone' -- gone from matter, gone from the body, gone from the visible, the tangible. He again uses 'gone' a second time -- gone from life, the so-called wheel of life and death. 'Gone beyond', the third time he uses 'gone' -- now gone beyond mind, thought, thinking, self, ego. 'Gone altogether beyond' -- now he uses it a fourth time... even gone beyond the beyond, the christosphere. Now he has entered into the uncreated.

Life has moved a full circle. This is the omega point, and this is the alpha too. This is the symbol you must have seen in many books, in many temples, in old monasteries -- the symbol of the snake holding its own tail in its mouth.GONE, GONE, GONE BEYOND, GONE ALTOGETHER...

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

Svaha is the expression of the ultimate ecstasy. It does not mean anything; it is just exactly like alleluia. It is a great exclamation of joy. The benediction has happened -- you are fulfilled, utterly fulfilled. But this sutra is not just to be repeated, remember. Buddha has condensed it into few words so that you can remember it. In these few words he has put the whole message, his whole life's message.

Nothingness is the taste of this whole sutra. Become nothing and you will be all. Only the losers can be the winners in this game. Lose all and you will have all. Cling, possess, and you will lose all.

Tao, no ego, no-mind, nobodiness, nothingness, in tune with the whole.

And Buddha says, "I have given the last, the ultimate in it. There is no more to it, and there is no more possibility to improve upon it."

And I also say to you: There is no more possibility to improve upon it. 'Nothing' is the greatest mantra. If you can enter into nothingness, then nothing else is needed. And that is the whole message of the Prajnaparamita Sutra.

Buddha is known as mantra adipatti, bestower of spells; master of spells, mahaguru -- but not in the sense that the word has fallen and become a dirty thing. In modern times guru has become a four letter dirty word -- not in that sense. Krishnamurti says that he's allergic to gurus. It is true.

Buddha is really a mahaguru. The word guru means heavy with heaven, heavy with joy, with ecstasy, heavy with svaha; heavy like a cloud full of rain, ready to shower on anybody who is thirsty, ready to share. Guru means heavy, heavy with heaven.

Guru also means one who destroys the darkness of others. A guru is one who makes you free. A guru is one who delivers you freedom. A guru is one who liberates you. Buddha is one of the mahagurus. His message is the greatest that has ever been delivered to man. And this sutra is one of the greatest expressions of Buddha. He has talked for forty-two years, and he has said many things, but nothing compared to this. This is unique. You are fortunate that you have been here to listen to it and to meditate upon it. Now be even more fortunate -- become it.

That's what Buddha is saying to Sariputra. Prajnaparamita means exactly 'meditation, the wisdom of the beyond'.

You cannot bring it but you can be open to it. You need not do anything to bring it into the world -- you cannot bring it; it is beyond you. You have to disappear for it to come. The mind has to cease for meditation to be. Concentration is mind effort; meditation is a state of no-mind. Meditation is pure awareness, meditation has no motive in it.

Meditation is an insight that all goals are false. Meditation is an understanding that desires don't lead anywhere. Meditation is not something you do in the morning and you are finished with it, meditation is something that you have to go on living every moment of your life. Walking, sleeping, sitting, talking, listening -- it has to become a kind of climate.

Meditation is a kind of experience which gives you a totally different quality to live your life. Then you don't live like a Hindu, or a Mohammedan, Indian or German; you simply live as consciousness. When you live in the moment and there is nothing interfering, attention is total because there is no distraction -- distractions come from the past and the future. When attention is total the act is total. It leaves no residue. It goes on freeing you, it never creates cages for you, it never imprisons you. And that is the ultimate goal of Buddha; that's what he calls nirvana.

'Nirvana' means freedom -- utterly, absolute, unobstructed. You become an open sky. There is no border to it, it is infinite. It is simply there... and then there is nothingness all around you, within and without. Nothingness is the function of a meditative state of consciousness. And in that nothingness is benediction. That nothingness itself is the benediction.

Buddha said many times, "Nothingness is not just no-thing-ness. It has its own universality. It is becoming as vast as the whole universe, unlimited. Your personality is too small."